Nn Drug Arrests Up 40% With Program

NEWPORT NEWS — Drug arrests have risen by 40 percent since the city stepped up its drug enforcement program, Police Chief Jay A. Carey Jr. told the City Council on Tuesday.

The new policy, called Operation Challenge, also has increased the number of weapons, vehicles and other property seized by the Police Department during drug-related investigations, Carey said.

The statistics were part of a report Carey presented on the first six months of Operation Challenge. The council raised taxes last June so the Police Department could hire seven more officers to attack the drug problem.

Carey's report showed that 339 drug-related arrests were made in the last six months of 1989, 40 percent more than the approximately 240 arrests during the same period in 1988.

The council's goal was to increase arrests by 50 percent, for a total of 700, by next July 1. Carey said he believed the city would meet that.

The street value of the drugs seized during the period was $271,212, or nearly three times the value of drugs seized in the same period the year before, he said. That far exceeds the city's goal of a 50 percent increase.

"We are very proud of what you have been able to accomplish," Mayor Jessie M. Rattley said. "But we are still holding you responsible for meeting your goal."

Carey said that since Operation Challenge began, police have confiscated $98,699 in cash associated with drug activity, $5,360 in stolen property, nine vehicles and 60 weapons, including some high-powered guns.

At one point, Carey showed the council a variety of guns and drug concealement devices that have been recovered since the program began.

"These were not confiscated in New York, or Dallas, Texas," Carey emphasized. "They were right here in Newport News."

Also under Operation Challenge, Carey said, police have set up a 24-hour hotline for citizens to report drug information, have begun working with hotel and motel operators to help spot drug dealers, and have improved communications with managers of apartments and low-income housing projects.

The program is being paid for by an increase in the real estate tax rate of 1 cent per $100 of assessed value. That should raise $550,000 a year. Depending on its success, council members will decide whether to continue the program next year.